Life Cycle Assessment to Quantify Global Warming and Human Health–Respiratory Impacts of Using Composites from Waste Wind Turbine Blades as Feedstock for Cement Clinker and Fiberglass Production

The wind energy sector is a growing contributor to global electricity generation. The increasing deployment of wind turbines also creates significant waste when turbine materials reach their end-of-life. Glass fiber reinforced polymer composites, which comprise the majority of a wind turbine blade’s mass, are difficult to separate into their component parts for recycling. This study employs a cradle-to-gate life cycle assessment to evaluate the environmental impacts of utilizing waste wind turbine blade material in cement clinker and fiberglass production. We find that incorporating waste blades as 15% of the feedstock in a cement clinker production plant reduces global warming and human health–respiratory impacts by 9 and 34%, respectively, compared to using virgin materials only. For a fiberglass plant, this substitution increases global warming impacts by 11% but decreases respiratory health impacts by 3%. Each kilogram of secondary product diverts approximately 0.25–0.32 kg of WTB waste from landfills. The projected rate of blade decommissioning of ∼800,000 tonnes per year would replace less than 1% of the overall virgin material demand for the cement clinker industry and up to 8% for the fiberglass industry, indicating plenty of capacity for these industries to accommodate this waste blade material in their feedstocks.